Amazon Web Services has announced a public beta of the new AWS Partner Network (APN), a global program that aims to boost the cloud-based businesses of partners with the help of sales and marketing support, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Membership is available for both technology partners -- including ISVs, SaaS providers and platform providers -- as well as consulting partners.

They can choose between three tiers: registered, standard and advanced. The latter two will include benefits such as service and support credits worth $2,000, and inclusion in a new AWS Partner Directory, according to Amazon.

Technology partners that wish to qualify for the standard or advanced tiers must have at least one product hosted on AWS. Consulting partners are required to have a minimum number of AWS-trained employees, which are two for standard and five for advanced.

Standard and advanced partners must also drive a minimal level of billings on AWS, and have a minimum number of customer references, according to an FAQ.

Although APN will not be fully activated until later this year, Amazon is encouraging all existing partners to pre-qualify for the standard and advanced tiers using the APN Upgrade Form as soon as possible.

The program will go live later this year, according to Amazon.

Speaking of partners, some of the companies that already work with Amazon are joining the company for the AWS Summit 2012 on Thursday in New York, which will also be streamed on the Web.

Trend Micro, for example, will talk about cloud security, while StorSimple will discuss cloud-integrated storage, and Datapipe will focus on deploying hybrid clouds with AWS.

Visitors to the event can also listen to a keynote from Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, and also learn about providing certainty about the charges, besides lowering the monthly bill from AWS.